The WordPress Photo Directory has officially surpassed the 10,000-photo mark. The purpose of the directory is to provide free, high-quality, CC0-licensed, community-submitted photographs suitable for use within WordPress sites and elsewhere.
The idea of an open-source Photo Directory was first proposed by Matt Mullenweg at the State of the Word 2021. It was introduced as a separate project from Openverse, a search engine for finding open-source media. All WordPress Photo Directory images can now be viewed in Openverse.
According to Michelle Frechette’s September 2023 Photo Directory update, the top categories of photos in the directory are nature (6365), architecture(1909), objects (897) and animals (887). The top contributors are Topher DeRosia (804), Marcus Burnette (424) and Bigul Malayi (364).
The Directory touched the 5K mark in November 2022 with 689 contributors. Topher DeRosia from Photos Team said “We also haven’t a single “objectionable” photo yet. No one has been a jerk. At 5000 photos I find that to be impressive.”
Anyone with a WordPress.org account can submit five photos at a time to the directory. Contributors can read the guidelines and FAQs before submitting their photos. A team of volunteers moderates all submissions and notifies contributors about photo approvals or rejections via emails.
The Photo Directory has finally become what Justin Tadlock envisioned in 2021: “a project where the Average Joe can upload a nice nature picture he took over the weekend barbecue.”